The Price She Paid
by Glass Wolf
Summary: Callista reveals to Luke how she regained her connection to the force and the secrets she has kept from him. Set in after the end of an AU NJO.


Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars it belongs to Lucas and his company. I am not making any money off this it's just a simple bit of wish fulfillment for my own and potentially the amusement of any other fans.

Note: I know that this fic is based on two popular fanfic cliche's Luke having unknown children by one of his past lovers and Callista regaining her force connection through pregnancy but, I wanted to play around with them and this is the result.

It is set in an AU that is basically how I wanted the New Jedi Order storyline Edge of Victory 2 is where this went radically AU some folks who died lived and some folks who lived Died. I have a whole series of fics planned for this au so you'll get the details as they are written. It takes place in 30 ABY in this alternate Universe.

The Price She Paid

"He's here." Geith said as he adjusted the medical bed's settings to move her to a reclined position. "Cray, is showing him from the landing pad." Callista smiled weakly even with her fluctuating connection to the force she had been able to sense Luke ever since he and Mara arrived in system. She wondered if they had brought their son along with them she would like to meet the boy before she died.

She knew if she only had the strength to look out the window on the other side of the room she'd see the ship they had arrived in. She and Luke had often talked about coming here to Chad when they were together but they'd never arrived. She looked at her twelve-year-old children and frowned at how mature they were for their age. It was because they'd spent the last six years helping her to cope with her degenerative condition. She was glad that she'd managed to hang on until the war with the Vong was done and that Chad had managed to avoid any direct participation in the fighting. She was startled from her wandering thoughts by the arrival of her daughter followed by Luke and Mara.

She saw a scowl on Mara's face and a slightly puzzled look on Luke's. She knew they were seeing the similarity to Luke on Cray and Geith's features and wondering about them. "I was sorry to hear about Han and Leia dying during the war." She saw them nod still unsure why they'd come.

"Cray, Geith I need you to leave the room now I have to talk to your father about things." She felt Mara's anger at that statement and felt Luke close off completely though she sensed briefly his disappointment and sense of betrayal. She felt her children about to object as they also sensed Mara's anger. "Don't argue just go." She said simply and saw them reluctantly leave the room their departure watched by Luke with an unreadable expression on his face.

Once they were out of the room, she braced herself for the inevitable explosion from Mara Jade. She was surprised when it didn't come. Instead to her shock Luke put his hand on his wife's shoulder and said simply. "Let her explain." The look in Mara's eye made it quiet clear she didn't believe Callista could explain but she was going to hold her tongue for now.

"Thank you Luke." Callista said and seeing the dark look that Mara turned on her so she decided to begin her story. "I will explain but I ask that you not interrupt, and I don't have much strength left and I need to finish this story before I die."

"I have to admit that the letter I left you after our last encounter following the Almanian rebellion was only partially true." She was pleased to see that Mara wasn't surprised so he'd told her about their brief time together when she'd returned and fled fearing his power. "I was afraid when you told me you single handedly rebuilt your father's fortress but that wasn't all of it I also ran because I feared what I was becoming." She felt a slight touch in the force from Mara as the other woman was making sure she was telling the truth.

"Three months before I returned, I found a legend on a primitive backwater planet of a shaman woman cursed to loose her powers who had earned them back by having another shaman's child." She felt the shock and horror from them as they realized where this story was going. "I came back, Luke, trying to get pregnant with your child without telling you." She looked away. "I had taken fertility treatments in advance of our reunion to increase the odds of my success." Mara looked ready to explode and only her husbands hand on her shoulder seemed to be restraining her. "After I came to fear your power I realized how far I'd fallen in my own quest for power and left unfortunately my plan had succeeded."

"That still doesn't explain why you didn't tell him?" Mara said angrily shrugging off her husband's hand and advancing toward her angrily. "Why wait this long to tell Luke the truth?"

She waited until Mara had calmed and resumed her place by Luke before continuing. "I had planned to return and confess everything but shortly after learning I was pregnant the force returned to me." She saw the accusation in Mara's eyes that all she'd cared about was the force. "And with it the knowledge that my murder of Cray was the reason I had been stripped of it."

She felt Luke and Mara's shock at her pronouncement. "The force showed me a vision that made my crime perfectly clear." She looked away recalling the horror she'd felt at that moment. "I was never meant to live again Luke I was meant to save Cray not accepting a desperate traumatized young woman's offer of a body for my own selfish desire to live again." She felt tears trailing down her face once again. "When I accepted her offer, I embraced the dark side and rejected the light so the light rejected me." She knew she had to go on. She didn't have much time left.

"You see Luke the force showed me what would happen if I had saved her." She looked away. "I saw myself refusing her offer and begging her to live." It was still painful to think about what she was about to reveal. "I would have succeeded and she would have gone on to be a great Jedi and a good wife to you." She was once more rewarded with shock from the couple standing just a few feet from her. "I saw that as you helped her grieve she would have helped you mourn me and the two of you would have found each other." She laughed. "I saw flashes from your entire life together up to the moment of her death as she gave her life to save her newborn twins from the sith." She looked at them sadly. "You see Luke those children out there aren't really mine they are yours and Cray's."

She was surprised to see for the first time a bit of pity mixed with anger in Mara's eyes. "I was devastated and came closer to the dark side than I'd ever been before." She still felt it just beyond her reach offering the power to save herself. "I would have fallen if the force hadn't shown me another vision." She had been dreading this moment it was the moment when she had to admit that she and Luke never could have been happy that it would only have led to ruin because of her selfish actions on the Eye of Palpatine. "I saw myself returning to you and we would be happy for a time." She still took a deep breath before continuing. "Until I passed the point Cray was meant to die and my body began to decay." She laughed bitterly. "To my horror I saw that you'd save me by destroying yourself." She saw in his eyes that he knew what she meant. "I'd follow you into darkness and I'd live as a dark empress ruling beside you in a nightmare empire committing crimes worse than any Vong atrocity." She looked away. "I couldn't give up the children even though I knew they weren't really mine and I couldn't go back to you so I made my choice."

Luke was quiet for a long time after she finished her story his expression closed off and unreadable. Mara's face showed a mixture of pity and anger every time she looked at her. "How long do you have left?" Luke asked her suddenly.

"A few hours maybe less." She said as she stopped fighting. "I've been fighting to delay this as long as I could." She smiled faintly. "I don't have to fight anymore." She could feel her conditioning accelerating as she stopped using the force to promote healing.

Luke looked at her for a long moment before saying. "You should spend this time with your children, Mara and I will wait in our ship." She was grateful for what he said as he looked at her. "Good bye Callista may the force be with you."

To her shock Mara spoke up as they were leaving. "You don't have to worry we'll take care of them." The other woman's eyes were focused on her neither forgiveness nor condemnation visible in them.

"I know and thank you for saying so." She said truly meaning it. "May the force be with you both." As she watched them leave, she knew they hadn't forgiven her and had ever right to let her know exactly how they felt but instead they'd chosen to let her spend her last hours with her children and for that she was grateful to them.

She was even more grateful later when it turned out that her condition was worse than she had thought. Free of her resistance it hadn't taken more than an hour to bring her to the brink of death. She saw Luke and Mara enter her room slowly and approach her crying children. She poured her gratitude to them into the force as she could no longer speak. Her final moments she spent pouring out every drop of love and affection through the force to her children so they'd always know how much she had loved them. She knew it would be difficult for them as they got to know their father and he got to know them. She was sure that even though she'd never cared much for Mara Jade that the woman would blame her and not her children for her actions and that out of love for Luke she would do her best by them.

As the last of her strength completely faded away her last thought oddly was of Cray and she wondered once again as she had ever since learning the true extent of her crime was if she could ask if the other woman would forgive her.

She opened her eyes and stood for the first time in months she could feel the ground beneath her feet but she couldn't see it everything seemed to be covered by a thick grey mist. She could sense the force all around her but it gave no indiction of where she was or how she came to be here. "You're forgiven." A voice said behind her and she turned to see Cray walking forward out of the mist a smile lighting up her face. "It gets easier to see through the mist in time." The other woman said offering her a hand. "There are others waiting to see you if you're ready?"

Callista turned back thinking of her children and if they were all right. "You don't have to worry." Cray's voice said gently. "They'll be all right." Somehow she knew that Cray was telling the truth turning back she accepted the other woman's hand and together they headed into the mist.

The End.

As I said at the beginning, I wanted to play with these two common fandom ideas I've seen in a bunch of fanfics. And the ending bit was a nod to the Netherworld of the force seen the old Marvel Star Wars comics.


End file.
